A trailer for the remake of the 1981 horror classic Evil Dead doesn't hold back on the gore. Facebook.com/Evil Dead

October 25, 2012

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The trailer: "Evil lives again," says the trailer for upcoming horror movie Evil Dead — appropriately enough, since it's a remake of a film that's more than 30 years old. (Watch the trailer below.) The original 1981 Evil Dead, which launched the careers of director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell, became an instant cult hit widely regarded as one of the best films in the "5 kids vacation, disastrously, in a remote cabin" genre, recently parodied in Cabin in the Woods. Though many fans have expressed skepticism about the remake, coming in April 2013, the presence of Raimi and Campbell as producers has assuaged some fears that the film would be another watered-down, by-the-numbers Hollywood cash-in. Does the trailer for the Evil Dead remake do justice to the original?

The reaction: "Do not watch this at work," warns The Huffington Post: "This may be the most terrifying and disgusting trailer ever released." It looks like the filmmakers are doing far more than phoning it in, agrees James White at Empire Online, reinterpreting some of the original's most memorable scenes and making them "seem even worse this time around." Yes, it's plenty gory, but "what's the point?" asks Forrest Wickman at Slate. In 1981, the original Evil Dead was a fresh spin on the horror genre, but this straight-faced remake seems to rely on "the deadest cliches you can imagine."